With the rapid increase and advances in digital documentation services and document management systems, organizations are increasingly storing important, confidential, and/or secure information in the form of digital documents. Unauthorized dissemination of this information, either by accident or by wanton means, presents serious security risks to these organizations. Therefore, it is imperative for the organizations to protect such secure information and detect and react to any secure information (or derivatives thereof) from being disclosed beyond the perimeters of the organization.
Further, the Internet facilitates wide and rapid dissemination of information. Along with obvious benefits, the ease of data access also creates challenge in controlling the flow of confidential information, such as private health and financial records, credit card numbers and social security numbers, intellectual property, software, designs, contracts, specifications, pre-release marketing materials, and business plans. This need has led to the development of a number of information security and control strategies that fall into the market category called “Data Loss Prevention”. In addition to information security, other example applications include academic institutions deterring plagiarism, copyright holders detecting infringements, and document custodians locating content.